more for me

Kimber-lena,

I feel like I haven't written to you in ages! You sure have been keeping me busy! I cannot even begin to describe the joy you bring to my life. I feel like my life has the most amazing purpose now, to be a mother to you, and what more could I possibly ask for?

You definitely have a strong personality (can't imagine where you would of got that from!) and are a bit stubborn at times. You know where your snacks are hidden and 'ask' for them frequently by banging on the dishwasher, however, you don't want to eat them... you just feed them to the dog and then 'ask' for more. You are impatient, again an attribute from me, and can't wait more than five seconds before a meltdown begins. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be not to be able to communicate!

Speaking of communicating... I've gotten pretty good at reading your mind. I wish you'd start talking! You say momma, dada, hi dada, hi, bye, go, dog, and the most recently added word *drum roll please* NO! It actually makes me laugh because you just wander down the hall saying 'no' for absolutely no reason at all. Pretty darn cute!

You've started a new game where you'll hit me and then immediately give me a hug. It totally reminds me of the Sour Patch Kids commercial: First they're sour... Then they're sweet. I giggle on the inside every time you pull this new trick. Hey, at least you realize you should make up for the hitting part, right? You love Sesame Street, The Wiggles, and Barney but I can really only tolerate Sesame Street :) Anytime you hear a song you always start dancing! You are way into books and blocks. I'd say those two things are by far the most played with items in our house... along with mommy's Tupperware!

Because of you, I actually enjoy mornings now. I love walking into your room while you babble and turn to me as I enter and say 'hi' in your cute little voice! I love our Tuesday and Thursday afternoon naps together. Nothing is better than snuggling up with you! I love how animated you are and how you laugh with your entire body. You got a baby for your birthday and now will walk around and pat it and give it hugs. Cutest. Thing. Ever. Is that a hint that you want to be a big sister?

You make me see the world in an entirely different light. You make everything worth it. I love seeing glimpses of how you see the world, and how everything is new to you. You are amazing, plain and simple, and I don't know how I got to be so lucky as to be your mom!

Love - Mom

more for me

Kimber,
I'm not really sure where time has gone. You turned 10 months yesterday and I am totally in awe of how amazing you are. There isn't a single day that goes by that you don't put a hundred smiles on my face, and I look forward to each and everyday because you love life. You are so happy ALL. THE. TIME. It's almost hard for me to fathom how one little person can be so happy... I guess that's what you get when you have such great parents! LOL

Right now you are so much fun. You are crawling, and cruising the furniture but really have no interest in walking. You've even started standing for short periods of time without holding on to anything, but you would rather crawl yourself than have me help you walk. Everything is an adventure and you really know how to express yourself. You scream multiple times a day. Not a mad scream, just an I want to hear myself scream. You especially love to do this when we are in public places, I think you like the reaction you get from me as I try to quiet you while laughing hysterically. You live for people's reactions and always want attention. When we ask you if you have a 'bad cough' you cough, or even when you hear someone else cough you will echo in response. You shake your head 'yes' and 'no' and sometimes it seems you understand our questions and will respond with the appropriate head shake. We 'boo heads' which normally leaves Mommy with a headache, and you think it's hilarious when I pull the binki out of your mouth using my teeth. In the mornings that Daddy has you, you will wave bye-bye to him, however all you do is cry when I leave you at Mary's. Can you imagine how hard that is for me???

I will admit that I am guilty of bed-sharing with you on the weekends. It used to be sporadic, but now it seems like almost every nap we all curl up in bed an snuggle. Sometimes you think it's play time but always fall asleep within 30 minutes. Usually right before you fall asleep you turn your head to face mine and snuggle down for sleep. It melts my heart every time.

You still aren't (and never have been) on a set schedule. You normally go to bed anywhere between 5 and 7 pm and get up between 5 and 6 am. You are so happy-go-lucky that sometimes I look at the clock and think 'oh my gosh, it's been 5 hours since you've had a bottle!' Speaking of food, you eat what we do now. So far you haven't turned your nose up at anything, so I'm hoping you don't turn out picky like me.

Your Dad and I think you are absolute perfection and bring so much joy to our lives. We probably tell you a million times a day how much we love you, how cute/smart/funny/adorable you are and I hope you never get tired of it, because I know we will NEVER get tired of telling you. I still cannot get over the fact that you will be an entire year old in just two short months, but I look forward to the future and watching you grow and learn sooo much!

I love you boo-ba-loo!
Love,
Mommy

more for me

Kimber,

I cannot wait until you become a mother and experience the love I have for you. It's indescribable. I cry at the thought of future owies, broken hearts, bullying, and anything else that could possibly cause you any kind of pain. I know these things aren't something I can control, and shouldn't worry about but I can't help myself. I never want you to feel an ounce of pain... ever... I wish I could make that promise to you, and I can't, and it kills me, but what I can promise you is that I will ALWAYS be there for you to kiss your owies, bash boys that dared break your heart, and do whatever it takes to make you feel better.

I so badly want to provide better for you than what I had. I want your childhood full of happy memories and a stable household. I want you to grow up with parents you adore that show you what a loving family is all about.

Can I just tell you how stinkin cute you are!!! I'm pretty sure you do something new every day. At 7 months you finally started kinda crawling. You were on all fours and would lunge forward, not even 2 weeks later (5/5/11) you started for real crawling and now you are all over the place! You much prefer to be down exploring our house than being held, which is a nice change. I feel like you allow me to get more stuff done around the house because you can occupy yourself most times. Oh, you also like walking while holding my fingers and you LOVE to pull yourself up using my arms and then immediately plop yourself down just so you can pull yourself up again. It's a riot.

We are going to be introducing protein tomorrow! I made your turkey and chicken, and let me tell you, making meat puree isn't my favorite thing! You love Mary, but I think you love being around all the other kids just as much. We're already pretty sure you're going to be a people watcher. You constantly wail, pretty much non-stop. I'm finally beginning to be able to tell weather you're crying or just yelling to hear yourself yell. Your favorite is when I or Dad yell back, then it becomes a game but we normally outlast you. You say 'da da' not for any reason, just randomly throughout the day. You're still sleeping through the night and still only have the two bottom teeth, but man those suckers are sharp!

You are such a happy baby and are becoming more independent everyday that goes by. You are constantly exploring your toy box and have figured out that when you drop things, mommy is always there to pick them up. This hasn't become a game yet, but I'm sure in the near future you will be dropping things and laughing.

I will never be able to tell you enough how much I love you and I will never get tired of saying it:
I love you boo-ba-loo!

Love,
Mommy

more for me

Kimber,

You are getting your first tooth. I noticed Monday, as you were chewing on my finger, that I could finally feel a toofer! You had a tiny open space and in the past two days it's made it's way through your gums and is barely visible. I want to look at it so badly but if my hands go anywhere near your mouth you think they are to be inserted for you to chew on.

Tonight you were too cute. While trying to feed you to go to sleep you weren't that hungry so I sat you up to burp you and you immediately laid your head on my chest. I love putting you to bed now because it's the only time you ever really attempt to cuddle with me. After you realized your head was on my shoulder you tried to pick it up but every time it seemed like your head was too heavy for you to lift and it quickly fell back into place.

You constantly roll around. It's like you can't sit still for two seconds. Sometimes you get up on all fours which makes me think crawling is in our near future, then I know I'm in trouble. You are so curious about everything already. If I have mail you want to play with it, you want to touch everything you can get your precious little hands on, when we sit outside you like to watch every single car until it's no longer visible.

You constantly amaze me, I love you to pieces and it's been a joy watching you grow. All I can hope is that one day you will look back and say that I was a pretty good mom. I try so hard to put your needs above everything else and every decision I make is based on what is best for you. You've taught me so much about being a parent, and about myself in general. I cannot wait so see what the future has in store for you!

Love,
momma

more for me

(This post is really more for me, as I've been told you will forget the cute small things your baby does. Well I don't want to forget so I am going to randomly post cute things that Kimber is doing so I can look back and never forget.)


Kimber-

Tonight we started our bedtime routine like normal. I ran your bath water while you sat on my lap, knowing what was coming next. I laid you in your bed and sang the 'nakie baby' song I made up for bath time, and we make our way to the bathroom.

First of all I must tell you how much you love bath time. You splash so hard you almost always give me a shower. Your new favorite game is to lift your butt up over the little hump in the bottom of the baby tub so it looks like your whole head is going to go under water. I swear you do this to give me a mini heart attack!

This bath night was different from the others. As soon as I took the washcloth to wet your hair you started to scream. I finished wetting your hair and got shampoo in my hands and you were fine until I, again, grabbed the washcloth to rinse your hair off. I finally figured out that you thought that washcloth was your toy and how dare I take that from you! Once I caught on I asked Daddy to get me another washcloth so I could bathe you while you played with the original one. This did not go over so well because as soon as you spotted my new washcloth you wanted that one too! I gave in and gave you my washcloth and you dropped the one you first had, I picked it up and then that's the one you wanted. As soon as I gave it to you, you dropped the other one. This game went on for a good 5 minutes while I just laughed at how funny you were being. I will never understand why you had to have the one I was using (they were even the same color for crying out loud!) but I thought it was cute. At one point you had one in each hand and shoved them both in your mouth! That's another thing you enjoy, chewing on washcloths... and pretty much anything else you can get your hands on.

I wanted so badly to get this on my phone but every other time you've done something cute as soon as I get my phone out you are immediately more interested in my phone than doing the cute thing that I wanted to record. Maybe next time I will be more prepared!

Also another cute thing you are doing is trying to blow bubbles. Some days you do it all day long. While eating cereal this usually results in me being covered in cereal blown on me but I can't help but laugh at your cuteness. This may sound mean but sometimes when you get really worked up and there is nothing I can do to calm you down you start trying to blow bubbles out of no where and I laugh. Big tears in your eyes and you start blowing bubbles and laughing... sometimes I just don't get you kid!

Thanks for all the smiles and laughs Boobaloo. Mommy loves you!